Improvement in auto



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH P. VOODBURY AND NATHAN AMES, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN AUTOMATIC RAILROAD-SWITCHES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 41,883, dated March 8,1864.

.To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that we, J osEPH P. WOODBURY and NATHAN AMES, of Boston, inthe county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a newand useful Automatic Railroad-Switch; and wedo hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of the constructionand operation of the same, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, forming a part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is aside view of ahorse railroad.- car with our improvements attached,representing one of the pendent arms depressed, so as to act upon thecentral rail or guide, W. Fig. 2 is a plan of two tracks-a straighttrack, a: m, and a turn-out, y y. Fig. 3 is a section representinganother method of confining the pendent arms in a perpendicularposition.

Like parts are indicated by the same letters in all the drawings.

The nature of our invention consists, rst, in attaching a pendentdepressible arm -permanently to the longitudinal center of the car-wheelaxle, so that the latter may revolve in the former, as a shaft in itsbearings; seoond, in combining with said arm,vpermanently attached tothe axle, either ahorizontal roller, F, or a vertical roller, G, tooperate on the concave side of a central guide-rail,W, whereby the carmay be guided or switched from one track to another by a person standingon the platform; third, holding said arm in a perpendicular position bymeans of astart, e, operating in combination with links U U, or a cleat,H, attached to the bottom of the car by bolts so small that in case thefoot of the arm should come in contact with any immovable orinsurmountable obstruction said bolts will break, and thereby preventthe axle or other parts of the car from being seriously injured; fourth,connecting together and raising said pendent arms by means of a singlespring, L; fifth, placing the central guide-rail on ametallic or woodenplatform or bed, extending some distance beyond it at either end and onthe concave side, so that the rollers on the depressible arm may slideor roll over it, instead of touching the ground, and, sixth, in thecombinationA of a windlass, J, and chain Iwith said pendent arm, wherebythe latter is depressed by a person standing on the platform of a movingcar.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use our invention, wewill now describe its construction and operation.

A is a car resting on the axles B B of the wheels (shown in dottedlines) in the usual manner.

D is a cast-iron box, (either round or made in halves bolted together,)in which the axle B revolves, said box being kept in the center of theaxle (see Fig. 2) by means of pins, collars held with set-screws, ortheir equivalents.

disa round arm or continuation ofthe box D;

F is a horizontal roller which turns on an axle fast in the arm d, asrepresented by the p dotted line in Figs. 1 and 2; or said roller may beprovided with a xed shank, axle, or continuation, which may revolve inthe arm d.

G is a vertical roller or wheel which turns on a pin or axle in the armd, as represented in Fig. 1. The same style of rollers should be used onboth ends of the car, or the width of the vertical roller should be thesame as the diameter of the horizontal one. On some railroads thehorizontal wheel will be preferable, and on others the vertical, owingto peculiar construction and location.

e is a start on the box D directly opposite the arm d, the object ofsaid start being to hold the pendent arm d in a perpendicular position,which it does by bearing on the cleat H, as shown in Fig. 1. The cleat His a bar of .iron bent at right angles, and is intended to be attachedto the bottom of the car by means of bolts (for an ordinary car) aboutthree-eighths of an inch in diameter, or so small as to be cutofforbroken by any unusual obstruction, as and for the purpose describedabove in setting forth the nature of our invention.

In place of the cleat H, two links, U U, may be used-one attached to astud, S, on the bottom of the car and the other to the start e, asrepresented in Fig. 3. When the arm d is in a horizontal position, thecontiguous ends of the links U U will bedepressed. The links are unitedby small pins, so as to break when required.

I is a chain or its equivalent,`one .end rof which is fast to the box Dand the other at tached to the windlass J, as represented in Fig. 1.

K is the handle of the windlass J, by turning which a person standing onthe platform of the ear can instantly depress and bring the arm d intoaperpendieular position, as shown in Fig. 1 at F.

L is a spiral spring stretched between the boxes D D or the starts e e,as shown `in Fig. l, the object of said spring being to hold the arms dd in a horizontal position when not depressed by the chain and windlass,for the purpose of bringing the rollers F and G to bear upon the concaveside of' the central guide-rail, W. The guide-rail NV is placed thesemi-diameter of the wheel F, to one side of the center of the track, asshown in Fig. 2, and its concave side is parallel with the turnout railsY Y. The top of this rail W is intended to be about one inch and a halfabove the other rails of the track, and is eontined to the top of thebed-piece V, of` wood or iron, smooth or corrugated, which extendsbeyond it, (W,)as shown in Fig. 2,and for the purpose specified above.

The drawing Fig. 2 representsa right-hand turn-out. It is obvious,however, that the central rail, W', may be curved in the oppositedirection and applied equally well to a lefthand turnout.

The tendency ot' a ear is always to move in a straight line; but when itis required to be switched from the straight track to the turnout it isonly necessary for the driver or a person on the platform to turn thewindlass J at the proper time, so as to bring the arm d into to operateeach separate switch.

Having thus described the construction and operation of our invention,what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

`1. Attaching a pendent or depressible arm permanently to thelongitudinal center of the axle, substantially as set forth, and for thepurpose described.

2. Combining with the arm d, permanently attached to the longitudinalcenter ot' the axle, either a horizontal or Vertical roller, F and G,substantially as and for the purpose described.

3. Holding the arm d in a perpendicular position by means of the start eor its equivalent, in combination with links or a cleat attached to thebottom of the ear by bolts so small as to break when required,substantial] y as described.

4. Connecting and raising the two arms Z and d by means of a singlespring, substantially as described.

5. The combination of the windlass J, chain I, and box D, substantiallyas and for the purpose set forth.

JosnPH r. WooDBURY. NATHAN AMns.

W'itnesses:

Jas. F. ELLIsl. Jas: AMES.

